February 8, 2018

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Refine Pinterest Lens visual searches with text suggestions

by John_A

2017 was a good year for Pinterest Lens users. Whether the feature helps you find recipes based on your brunch pics, offer style tips from the clothes you already own or gave you a hand with your Target shopping, the company’s visual search is handy for a lot of things. In fact, Pinterest says Lens powers over 600 million of those searches monthly, and twice as many folks are using it every day compared to six months ago.

As part of the one-year anniversary of Lens, Pinterest is rolling out a new feature for the tool. In the iOS version of the app, you can now add text to any photo search. In other words, when you’re looking a new sofa to match your coffee table, you can refine a Lens search with the word “sofa” to guide the results. Basically, if you’re looking for specific items, using both a photo and a keyword should help. The new ability will only be available for iOS users when it arrives next week, but the company promises the Android faithful will be able to take advantage soon enough.

If the last several months are any indication, Pinterest will continue to throw its weight behind Lens. The company says it’s improving the tool on a daily basis, constantly recognizing more objects and making it more accurate. One thing is for sure: Pinterest is no longer just a place you store recipes and project ideas, it has become a very powerful search tool.